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A Story About Humility

There is a story about Krishna who came upon some Gopis (Devotional Disciples)
on the bank of the river Ganges.
The river was storming and raging.

The Gopis needed to cross the river,
but they could not even get on their raft while the storm was so fierce.
Believing in Krishna’s power, they pleaded with Him to come to their aid.

Bring Me Food

Krishna told them to bring him a big bowl of rice and ghee.
They didn’t expect this response, but they didn’t argue.

They brought him copious amounts of food.
He feasted on bowl after bowl
and when He had eaten the last drop of food
He stood up, faced the river and declared…

“By the power of my fast I command the river to become calm!”
The river immediately became still.
The Gopis were amazed.
They surrounded Him and offered their sincere gratitude.

A Contradiction When Viewed From The External

But they were also confused.
They asked Him how He could have used
the power of fasting to accomplish this goal
when He had just eaten a huge meal?

He responded saying that He had offered every bite,
every grain of rice to the Divine and taken none of it for Himself.
Even the enjoyment of the taste was truly the Divine’s enjoyment and not His own.
So in truth He had not eaten a morsel.

A Sincere Offering – a Recognition Of The TRUTH

It was the sincerity of His offering,
The awareness of His true Infinite nature
that made His oath of fasting completely truthful
and therefore held such power.
Not the outward appearance of fasting.

Even if He had not eaten for days, fasted to the point of near death,
there would not have been as much intensity behind those words.

This is source awareness,
this is humility.

Denying Your Greatness Is Not Humility

Neither is acting meek or unimportant.

Enjoying your talents and accomplishments
is not in opposition to humility.

Humility is foundational.
It comes from profound self-knowledge.

I Love To Celebrate Myself

When someone says to me something like
“You are so good at that Vivek”
my usual response is just to say
“Yup!”

I usually do not deny it
and in fact will join them in celebrating it.

And yet inside I work at constantly recognizing
that this limited body-mind is not the real me
All my accomplishments come from my infinite spirit,
which is the same as your infinite spirit
for there is only one spirit.

I try and think of this story of Krishna as often as I can
and implement this attitude in my life.